In general, silver halide color photographic light-sensitive materials are processed by use of a color developer, a bleach, a fixer, a bleach-fixer and a stabilizer. Among these processing solutions, a bleach and a bleach-fixer contain a bleaching agent to bleach silver, and ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid ferric complex salts are most widely used, as bleaching agents, in processing color paper and color negative films at the present. However, ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid ferric complex salts are poor in biodegradability; if they are discharged into a river or soil, they accumulate or drift over a long period of time without being decomposed, exerting undesirable influences upon the natural environment. Recently, there have come to be used, as bleaching agents, 1,3-propanediaminetetraacetic acid ferric complex salts (PDTA-Fe) described, for example, in Japanese Pat. O.P.I. Pub. Nos.103041/1990, 103040/1990, and 250651/1988. PDTA-Fe salts have excellent bleaching power and rapid processing capability as well as high biodegradability. But, in practice, these have disadvantages of causing bleach fogging when bleaching is carried out immediately after color developing. Though lowering pH by use of acetic acid or the like is conceivable as a preventive measure against bleach fogging, this causes offensive odor as another problem.
The compounds disclosed in EPO,430,000Al and German Pat. No.3,939,756 are known as bleaching agents with high biodegradability, but these have disadvantages of deteriorating the desilverizing property and impairing the rapid processing capability when used in low replenishment processing.